Generally described, heart failure is the inability of the heart to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the body's needs. Heart failure can significantly reduce the quality of life of a patient and lead to death. Generally, heart failure is the result of the weakening or hardening of one or both ventricles of the heart. Whether weakened or hardened, one or both ventricles do not pump sufficient amounts of blood and fluids through the body. As a result, excessive fluid can build up in different locations within the body depending on which ventricle is affected. This build up of liquids can lead to serious side effects, such as dyspnea (shortness of breath), impaired liver function, ascites (fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity), pulmonary edema (excessive fluid in the lungs), dependent peripheral edema (excessive fluid in the organs and extremities), pleural effusion (fluid collection between the lung and chest wall), coagulopathy, and can be life threatening.
Generally described, sepsis is a serious medical condition that is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state (systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS) in response to an infection. The immune system's reaction to the infection may injure the body tissues far from the original infection. As sepsis progresses, it begins to affect organ function and eventually can lead to septic shock—a sometimes fatal drop in blood pressure. For certain individuals with other medical conditions, the fatality rate for sepsis can be as high as 60%. Thus, diagnosing and treating sepsis early and accurately is extremely important to improve the survivability of the patient.
In addition, treating sepsis can be extremely expensive because a patient is often treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) for several days or weeks. Sepsis can often be diagnosed using blood culture, analyzing blood gases, kidney function tests that are abnormal, platelet counts that are lower than normal, and/or white blood cell counts that are lower or higher than normal. Other tests may include urine tests, wound secretions, cerebrospinal fluid tests, X-rays, computerized tomography (CT) scans, ultrasounds, and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Patients diagnosed with or suspected of having sepsis are often admitted to the ICU for treatment. Treatment typically involves intravenous antibiotic therapy, as well as oxygen, intravenous fluids and medications that increase blood pressure, and can last several days or even weeks. Additional treatment may include draining any abscesses, breathing machine, and/or dialysis.